Deep Litter in COLD Climates

[Folly's place]

Ducks are a whole different story!!! Chickens are much more 'civilized'! Mary

 

[Ridgerunner]

Ducks are a whole different story!!! Chickens are much more 'civilized'! Mary

Thank you for a good chuckle.

 

[BantyChooks]

Ducks are a whole different story!!! Chickens are much more 'civilized'! Mary

That I'll agree with you on. I have since switched to providing water in a sheltered area outside and it has made winter care much less of a headache.

 

[BantyChooks]

#8
I finally found the link to the type of DL I was thinking about. You can see it almost looks like soil. I've been thinking and researching more, and I don't think that this would work for my climate, lovely though it looks. Maybe a drier pseudo–deep-litter like you do, ridgerunner? I have had good success with just pine shavings, so maybe I'll continue on in that path. Deep litter in my run has worked really well, but that's not getting pooped on all winter. I can see that DL in the coop would freeze solid and start capping up—not a good environment. Anyway, ramble over; tell me if I'm just being crazy... I appreciate all the input given on the moisture issue.

 

[lazy gardener]

Banty, I am a fan of Bee. She has taught me a lot over the years. I have been doing DL for almost as long as I've been a BYC member. The most successful DL occurs as in Bee's situation, on a soil floor. My current coop is not a soil floor. I was almost at the point of giving up, several years ago. I was depending on shavings for the bulk of the DL. Late one fall, I found a bit of compost that had not yet frozen solid. I scooped it up and put it into the leaf mulch under the roosts. It eventually inoculated the litter, and I've had fair success with it since then. My management style in a 10 x 12 coop with 17 - 30 birds:

I let the litter build up under the roosts, occasionally knocking down the poo mountains, or tossing more leaves/grass clippings on top of them. About 2 - 3 x/year, I open up the clean out door behind the roosts. I scoop most of the DL out into the run, leaving enough behind to inoculate new material. I then push the litter which was at the front of the coop (this litter very rarely gets soiled) to the back under the perches. When I do this, just for good measure, I sprinkle a bit of Permethrin on the perches, and around the edges of the floor where they meet the wall. I also treat the nest boxes before adding a new pile of hay. After the front litter has been moved to the back, I top off with fresh leaves and am ready to go for an other 4 - 6 months. (adding new litter as needed)

My litter is made up MOSTLY from leaves which have been collected from other properties and stock piled. I add some garden debris and grass clippings as they become available. I also bust open a bale of hay now and then to add to the mix. I like to add mint, lemon balm, cat nip, citronella, creeping charlie, for their fragrance and insect repellent qualities.

My run is DL. I close off 1/3 of it for their winter run. It is 1/3 covered with a green house tarp with a nice peaked roof to shed snow, the remainder covered with 2 x 4 welded fencing and a blue tarp. Walls covered N, E, S with 4 mil. plastic. The birds forage and dust bathe in this DL all winter long.

My planting zone is 4.5. My Latitude is 44.5.

Based on my experience, I think you could be successful with DL in your coop, depending on your coop size and height.

 

[BantyChooks]

Banty, I am a fan of Bee. She has taught me a lot over the years. I have been doing DL for almost as long as I've been a BYC member. The most successful DL occurs as in Bee's situation, on a soil floor. My current coop is not a soil floor. I was almost at the point of giving up, several years ago. I was depending on shavings for the bulk of the DL. Late one fall, I found a bit of compost that had not yet frozen solid. I scooped it up and put it into the leaf mulch under the roosts. It eventually inoculated the litter, and I've had fair success with it since then. My management style in a 10 x 12 coop with 17 - 30 birds:

I let the litter build up under the roosts, occasionally knocking down the poo mountains, or tossing more leaves/grass clippings on top of them. About 2 - 3 x/year, I open up the clean out door behind the roosts. I scoop most of the DL out into the run, leaving enough behind to inoculate new material. I then push the litter which was at the front of the coop (this litter very rarely gets soiled) to the back under the perches. When I do this, just for good measure, I sprinkle a bit of Permethrin on the perches, and around the edges of the floor where they meet the wall. I also treat the nest boxes before adding a new pile of hay. After the front litter has been moved to the back, I top off with fresh leaves and am ready to go for an other 4 - 6 months. (adding new litter as needed)

My litter is made up MOSTLY from leaves which have been collected from other properties and stock piled. I add some garden debris and grass clippings as they become available. I also bust open a bale of hay now and then to add to the mix. I like to add mint, lemon balm, cat nip, citronella, creeping charlie, for their fragrance and insect repellent qualities.

My run is DL. I close off 1/3 of it for their winter run. It is 1/3 covered with a green house tarp with a nice peaked roof to shed snow, the remainder covered with 2 x 4 welded fencing and a blue tarp. Walls covered N, E, S with 4 mil. plastic. The birds forage and dust bathe in this DL all winter long.

My planting zone is 4.5. My Latitude is 44.5.

Based on my experience, I think you could be successful with DL in your coop, depending on your coop size and height.

Thank you! I also have learned quite a bit from Bee, and have changed many of my management styles after reading her posts. So, your deep litter is not wet enough to freeze solid in the winter, yes?

 

[lazy gardener]

Weeellll... I wouldn't necessarily say that. It will freeze. I simply make sure that it is not too deep before heading into the deep freeze. And the first nice warm days after the thaw, I put "clean the coop" on my priority list. It may linger there on that list for a month, before I finally get down to business and actually get the deed done. I like to wait until I have some fresh grass clippings to top things off in the coop!

I don't put extra moisture into the litter. When checking it this summer, I noted that there was enough moisture there to keep microbes happy. While I didn't stick my fingers in it, poking around with a mulch fork let me know that it was working. Also, there has been no odor in my coop for well over a year. No ammonia smell. If any thing, the occasional fresh cecal dump. Otherwise, the pleasant (to me) barn yard smell. Not poopy, but your nose tells you that there are animals about!

 

[BantyChooks]

Weeellll... I wouldn't necessarily say that. It will freeze. I simply make sure that it is not too deep before heading into the deep freeze. And the first nice warm days after the thaw, I put "clean the coop" on my priority list. It may linger there on that list for a month, before I finally get down to business and actually get the deed done. I like to wait until I have some fresh grass clippings to top things off in the coop!

I don't put extra moisture into the litter. When checking it this summer, I noted that there was enough moisture there to keep microbes happy. While I didn't stick my fingers in it, poking around with a mulch fork let me know that it was working. Also, there has been no odor in my coop for well over a year. No ammonia smell. If any thing, the occasional fresh cecal dump. Otherwise, the pleasant (to me) barn yard smell. Not poopy, but your nose tells you that there are animals about!

Interesting. Thank you.